Six Authors In Search of a Character

With works by: Jeff Bouthiette, Spenser Davis, Rory Jobst, Jillian Leff, Francesca Peppiatt and Sean Margaret Wagner
Stage Manager: Ryan Kenney

In this festival of new works celebrating the 150th anniversary of Luigi Pirandello's birth, we asked six playwrights to write 10-minute plays around the "missing" character in The Mountain Giants, Pirandello's final, unfinished play.

In The Mountain Giants, a magician, Cotrone, presides over an abandoned villa and a ragged group of outcasts who are visited by a touring theatre troupe. The thespians are looking to play The Fable of the Changed Son, the masterpiece of a poet who killed himself out of unrequited love for the lead actress, the Countess Ilse. Since the poet's death, Ilse has relentlessly performed the play, in spite of negative reactions from audiences. That night, the villa sees the boundaries between dream and reality collapse, along with those between characters and actors.

Pirandello only wrote the first three of four intended acts. The character of the Mountain Giants eluded him.

Who are the Mountain Giants? That's what these playwrights are going to find out.

Six Authors features:

  • Playoffs by Jeff Bouthiette, directed by Holly Robison. Starring: Chase Nuerge, Sarah-Lucy Hill, Laura Stratford, Amee Binder and Jessye Mueller.

  • Away Game by Spenser Davis, directed by John Morrison. Starring: Julie Peterson, Jean E. Burr, Brian Rohde, Jennifer Betancourt and Dan Krall.

  • Rock Show by Rory Jobst, directed by Lesley Fisher Chapman. Starring: CJ Chapman and Song Marshall.

  • Forgetting by Jillian Leff, directed by Breahan Pautsch. Starring: Ryan David Heywood and Taylor Raye.

  • Act IV by Francesca Peppiatt, directed by Chad Wise. Starring: Zoe Sjogerman, Miona Lee, Terri Lynne Hudson, Chuck Quinn IV, Josh Razavi, J. Rohr, Kirk Jackson, Paul Czajkowski, Javier Carmona and Jean E. Burr.

  • A Little Villa Where We Could All Live by Sean Margaret Wagner, directed by Mike Danovich. Starring: Raymond Cleveland, Jessica Wise and Kim Egan.

The evening will begin with a short, abridged version of the first three acts of The Mountain Giants featuring the same cast as Act IV, directed by Maria Burnham.

Six Authors in Search of a Characters is curated by Ghostlight Ensemble Member Miona Lee and is hosted by:

Details
Where: Instituto Cervantes
(31 W. Ohio St, Chicago, IL 60654)
When: Thursday, May 25, 2017
What time: 7 p.m. Reception, 8 p.m. Show time
How much: $15
Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets.